ptree

Steve Sells hit that nail on the head! ( Sorry Steve for the pun) The HC spikes are used on Main line tracks in our area per the RR contractor I buy from. He does work to the extent he has several Rail Car loads of new spikes at a time and only buys HC. I have never seen any evidence of anything in a spike that indicates other than the AAR spec material. A nail is a nail is a nail. But they are indeed fun to work, and make great tough steel items, but not very hard items. I make trowels for gardening, and of the 350+ I have made and I gaurantee them not to bend or break in my lifetime. I have not got one back yet. They are as forged condition. ThomasP, Charpy V-notch is a toughness test, and heat treat condition can definetly affect that, but the cold brittle steels can be "as forged" and brittle at temps as warm as mid 30's F We heat treated C-1023 to affect charpy V-notch strenght for valves and fitting going into A-350 Lf2 service, that is -40F service for say the Noth slope. It was more of a normalize type treatment than a hardening. Most hardened steels fare poorly at -40F

Great job with available items. For a motor mount, may I suggest a square tube for the vertical? I also used the entire rear spindle and bearings from the rear axle of a front drive Chrysler minivan. It unbolts from the rear beam axle and has a nice bolt flange, I welded a plate to the vertical member on my hammer and bolted the hub assy and it has been working solidly for years. Ohh, another thought. Many folks use a textured, or knurled surface on the steel contact wheel against the rubber tire. That reduces the ability to feather and get slow speed, and quickly eats the tire. Mine is a simple as turned surface, and also has been working for years.

Yes!

The waterjel burn coverings are actually carried on the ambulances in this area. They are a wet, cooling light napkin like covering. They lift right back off. They even make a face mask covering with eye and mouth holes. I have reccomended NOTHING not approved for use at my factory by our Occupational Consulting and treating MD.

Bull dozers are NOT like a horizontal punch bress, but do work off a crank in the mechanicals. Think of a big slow horizontal bender. Good for production work on long parts. Great for very large U-bolts shackles and the like. They can be easily tooled with shop built tooling. It just bolts to the the big table. At Vogt we had a nice shop built baby bulldozer. Used a 36" bore air cylinder and had a 4' stroke, with a 4' wide table. Used to make all sorts of stuff for boilers, like pipe hangers shackles and the like. The skylights were in almost all buildings in that day, note that only 2 or 3 electric lamps are evident in that entire shop. Work days were dawn to dark since that was when the light was available. Many buildings had Sawtooth roofs, that had north facing windows to let in a nice difuse light, no solar heating in the summer and no glare in the eyes. At VOGT, we had about 300,000 square feet of sawtooth roof, including the 1903 machine shop, now on the National Historic Register. It had the line shafts still in the roof, but was near bare and used for bipe bending and the like.

Some suggestions from ptree the guy who buys and stocks the first aid kits and supplies at work, and has been doing industrial First Aid for over 20 years. EYEWASH Staright water from a plumbed eye wash fountain is great. Most don't have that, so bottled eye wash is available. NOTE that it has an expiration date, and that date is important so toss and get fresh right before it goes out. NEXT, straight saline solution, available in nice sized about quart size is the best to buy. If you get chemicals in the eyes flush with running water for 15 minutes(seems a litetime) and then flush with that bottle of saline. The saline will soothe you now now extremly irriated eyes. BURNS Cooling the burn in flowing cool to cold water is the number one first step. The number 2 step is a WATERJEL dressing. Comes in a foil packet. Tear open carefully, reserving the liquid in the packet. Unfold the wet napkin like dressing and gently lat on dressing. Instant soothe! After a couple of minutes pour a little of the reserved liquid from the packet on the dressing and the soothing liquid both numbs and evaporates to cool. These are available in a multitube of sizes and cheap at the price. For smaller burns a burn jel in a one use backet is very nice and is also always clean as it is a one use. Splinters For under $5 a set of tweezers with an attached magnifier is really priceless to find and extract metal splinters. I buy Ez-outs. FINGER CUTS I find the knuckle bandages with the four tails to be the best small bandage for the hands and feet. Buy the Woven and they stick. fit anywhere and will actually stay on a cut finger or knuckle. TAPE I use Co-Ban by 3M. This is a elastic, sticks only to itself tape. Place a big pad on a wound, and start wrapping. It applies pressure by its elastic nature. Over a knuckle bandage about 3 wraps, makes a bandage good for at least half a day in the shop, AND guys it does not stick to that hairy arm:). Avoid too tight it will stop blood flow, unless that is the goal in a big bleeder BIG WOUNDS I find the "Bloodstopper" bandage priceless at about $2 each. They have a good sized pad, a attached roller bandage to act as a pressure wrapping and they are big enough to around a belly with the wrap. KITS I am well pleased by the Swift trauma first aid kit. Last time i bought they were about $100. Had a blastic nylon bag the zips with hangers for wall mount. Has everything listed above including the eyewash plus emergeny blankets and more. I use a fire extinguisher pin lock through the zippers to let me see at a glance if the kit has been used. That way when we need the big kit for a big injury it is completly full. Nothing is worse than a nice first aid cabinet or kit that is empty or full of dirty messed up stuff. I buy all of the above from my local Hagemeyer location. I think Walgreens sells the Watergels at about twice what the Hagemeyers sells for but they won't cost you for shipping. If folks are interested I will get the Hagemeyer Part numbers for the above and post about Monday.

Bull dozers are still in use and for sale on the surplus record. Most are now hydraulic

2 little true stories about grinder wheels on grinders without guards. 1. I was sitting in my office, having just arrived at work when a friend walked in, holding his crotch and there was blood flowing between his fingers. I asked him how bad and he said he was afraid to look. I got him in the truck and to the ER in about 5 minutes. He had been using an unguarded whizz wheel to cut a bent bar out of a screw machine reel. The whizz wheel broke in 2 and half hit him. NOT in his Daddy parts but close. The hunk had to be removed surgically, since it was ragged and sitting on the artery. He bruised the artery but did not cut it. Totally unguarded wheel on a die grinder. 2. At the another shop a guy had just put on a new 9" wheel. He squeezed the trigger, the wheel spun up and broke into shards before he had touched the work. One rather large hunk missed him, but nearly severed the neck of the fellow next station over. DRT. Why did the wheel fail? 9" wheel on a 7" grinder. No gurads meant the 9" fit fine. The rpm on a 7" was way higher than on the 9" and the wheel failed due to centrifacal force. Guards help contain shards, help keep your digits yours, and lastly help to prevent boneheaded things like too big a wheel. How many of you check the rpm on the label against the rpm on the tool BEFORE you mount it? Want to know what DRT means? Dead Right There. When you want to shortcut and do stuff you have gotten away with but know is not safe, consider that some poor sod like me will eventually have to clean up another really bad disgusting mess, and when its a friend you are cleaning off the machine or floor it tends to give you PTSD. Ptree who has spent 3+ hours cleaning a friend off and out of a forklift, and was not right for 6 months after.

Guys, If you work in a comercial shop the following applies to EVERY SINGLE OPERATING FACILITY IN THE us. OSHA REQUIRES that PPE such as plain safety glasses be provided at NO COST to the employee. Presciption glasses are different. OSHA requires that the PPE be maintained and in good, clean condition. Soooo.... If you work in a shop that only has one pair for the shop gently point out the error of their ways. Plain, good fitting safety glasses with hard coat for scratch resistance and anti-fog are cheap, WAY cheap. I buy at wholesale for $1.18 per pair in boxes of 12. That is so cheap that every employee gets a pair first day, and every employee is encouraged to exchange scratched glasses as soon as they can. I supply glasses to a shop of about 250 workers and go through a bunch of glasses. The management is tickled to provide them as ONE single bad eye injury will drive up the insurance premium for 5 years, and deny us a trained worker until they are healed, not to mention that they actually care when folks get hurt. I put 5 dozen pair in the cabinet today. I keep about 4 dozen pair of the great Pramex Highlander grinding glasses on the shelf as well as they get swarf burns and get hard to see thru as well. Again at less than $4 why not. If you need to know, the safety glasses are Varrati #2000 safety glasses from Hagemeyer NA. By the way, they shop folks love these calling the "Bikini" glasses after wearing the clinky glasses my predecessors had them wear.

I have worked in factories all my life. Been a safety guy for quite a while. For those who don't wear prescription safety glasses, check out the Pryamex brand Highlander safety glasses. They have a soft, COMFORTABLE gasket that really does seal well if the quick connect strap is fastened across the back of the head. We have tried many many brands and types and the guys and gals like these better than any others. They are very inexpensive, and the bikers love them to ride with. Less than $10 from the wholesaler, I think less than $5 if bought by the box. I order the Pryamex Highlamder Safety glasses from my local Hagemeyer NA mill supply. If you need help call 502-962-xxxx and ask Mike Morrison and he can sell them to you over the phone by credit card, and or tell you which of the 1700 shops they have worldwide is closest to you. Hint, These are real snazzy, not you average "BC's" phone number not working

I purchase brand new spikes by the keg locally. They are stamped HC, and I can testify that they get tuff, but do not in any way get "Hard". I would say they forge about like a C-1030 steel. I have forged something over 300 garden trowles from RR spikes, and most from found and bought from all over spikes, all stamped HC, and not one forged like a C-1095. Perhaps the company mentioned above decided to answer the need for a real high carbon spike to be sold to knife makers. Mine were all from or intended as line spikes in RR service.

Heck, if you can make the anvil, just make the whole thing! I did.

In the valve shop, we changed to 265F heads over the heat treat dept, added a draft wall and lots and lots of vent fan to take care of the quench smoke. I caught the problem when the management tossed the already contracted for plans on my desk after a union vote that decided where the plant was to be built. I openbed the plans and asked did you plan to water quench the loads at heat trteat, and the plant manager looked at me and asked why? I told him I found it odd they put the heat treat in the middle of a 6.5 acre air conditioned plat with no provision ofr the quench smoke or the heat. The roof air con units had smoke detectors in the supply and returns and the sprinkler heads were standard 135F units. The small furnace was a 1000# per load and the stress relieve was a car bottom! They also put the parkerize line right next to that with no provision for the acid vapors off the tanks! I spent a long day of questions and their secrecy about the plans led to a $10 million plant being a $14 million plant after the change orders. Never popped a sprinkler, but the smoke overwhelmed the ventalation inside the draft wall, a couple of times till we got the really big upblast fan installed. I feel for you.

Heck, I have been having senior moments since I became a senior. That was senior in high school and was in the previous century:)

Cilidog, yep, typo. 8" bore is 50.24" squared, so at 2000PSI you get about 50 ton, I had actually punched in 1500PSI and computed that, but then typed 2000, and went down hill from there:)

Bryan, in pressure vessels there are ways to enter the vessel for cleaning/repairs etc. These are called a Manway, or a hand way, for much smaller versions that are used for inspection. Typically an oval, the smallest manways are about 6" x18" and have a heavy wall thru the pressure vessel. The oval, domed cover is inserted INSIDE the vessel and a gasket is placed between the cover the the manway lip, on the inside of the vessel. A threaded rod is screwed into the cover that goes thru an arch the spans the outside. You tighten the threaded rod with a nut on the outside enough to hold the cover in place, and then pressure on the dome makes the seal. If the manway leaks, tightening the manway only overstresses the dome, and with enough stress the dome inverts, the cover comes through and then your day is ruined. These are very common on boilers as well as other pressure vessels.

John, I have had some wild times with blown air hoses. One of the reasons I like to have SHORT hoses Once at the valve shop, an engineer was given the power house to supervise as well as his other jobs. ZIP air compressor experience, buts lots of piping experience. Now he saw that the 4 200 Hp screw comp[ressors used very expensive fluid a PAO type, and he found a much cheaper fluid and the next change that went in. It was a Phosphate ester type. The blowby oils began to attack the rubber hoses all over that 40+ acre factory compound, turning the rubber hose liners to cooked spagetti strenght. We replaced several thousand feet of hose and about 100 lexan filter bowls that crazed cracked before I found out what had occurred. After the compressors were returned to friendly to rubber PAO oils, and the hoses rep[laced etc, he was replaced. As a thank you for finding and correcting the problem I became the powerhouse Supervisor in addition to everything else on my plate, and you guessed it, NO PAY RAISE It did later help me get the title Plant Engineer :)

An interesting little story about failure caused by lack of knowledge and perhaps pure stupidity, and 100% true. I consulted on the case after the fact. A liquid tank to hold nitrous oxide for a hospital was needed. The tank would hold the liquid nitrous and gas would be drawn off as needed for a medical application. The tank was in the 3 tons of liquid size. The company had no Nitrous tank, but did have a CO2 tank. They called the maker of the tank and were told "DON"T". They asked why, and the maker told them all the reasons why, which the caller mostly wrote out. SOOOO... They sandblasted the old tank to clean it. This sandblasting destroyed the insulation. So they reinsulated. The blasting also ate the insulation on the heating/cooling package. Now the way these systems work is the pressure rises and a refrig system comes on and cools the liquid dropping the pressure. When gas is demanded, the pressure drops so a heater comes on and that raises the pressure to keep the gas at the right pressure. Well the electrician ALMOST got the wiring right, except he hooked the heater to the normally closed contacts. The "in my opinion crimnally negligant idiots" then did the hydro test not with water, or something safe like nitrogen, filled the tank with nitrous. As the pressure began to rise, the refrig system came on but could not match the heater. As the pressure continued to rise the manway cover in the bottom of the tank began to leak. The #$%@'s tightened the manway, a NEVER do. When the manway inverted and blew through the oval manway rim, the tank which was welded to a trailer as a temp mount became a liquid fueled rocket, with 3 tons of liquid fuel. It blew the floor boards out, and shot gravel, insulation and sheet metal all around until the welds failed. The tank then flew about 500' landing in an intersection of a road. No cars luckly. The sad part is that one of the workmen had brought his young son along to work with him that Saturday morning. He was riding his bike about 50' away and a hunk of something hit him in the leg, severed an artery and he bled to death. Had the manway not inverted, the tank probably would have ruptured as the relief vale was both undersized and solidly plugged with sand. The moral of this sad story is when an expert in the art-science-technology tells you DON"T, LISTEN

r smith That number should be 10,500 psi, sorry. My typing skills are pretty bad. Currently the press is a pair of very larg cylinders and power units, one set at my shop, and one at my cohort's shop. I suspect the frame will end up a H frame, hard piped with tube inside of larger tube for a leak sheild. The valving will most likey be on the outside wall as will the power unit and most plumbing. I expect to run at about 1/2 rated cylinder pressure. I expect to also have a sheet metal wrap to deflect spray around the cylinder, and a rod seal sheet metaldiverter as well. Since the cylinders are 8", and rated for 3000 psi I should be able to get about 37 tons, and stay well below design. If I go to 2000 psi that would be 50 tons. Since the power units we have are surplus and have van pumps that will push about 30 GPM, and that will take about 20Hp at 1500 psi or so, I will probably use a small gas engine to turn the pumps, another reason to have the pumps on the other side of the wall. BUT, until some more of the needed surplus shows up, no movement. Just because we are building from surplus means violate the safety side, just have to be patient. Besides high pressure hydraulic and hydro testing my lab was capable to 5000psi gas pressures, also very scarey. I worked at 1000 psi nitrogen and 500 psi Methane almost every day, but anything over 2000 psi gas was in the test cell. I would guess that the lab had probably $50,000 in fittings and lines over the years to keep the right stuff on hand. A typical 10,500 psi hydro test machine, SINGLE station would cost about $30,000 to plume today, exclusive of the automation and frame. I built an 8 station machine, totally manual, capable to a max pressure of 8800 psi in about 1991, and the fittings for that machine was about $30,000. Oddly the air driven pumps were very reasonable at $500 each then. The entire machine was $105,000 installed and was used to test our ASME "N" stamp or nuclear rated valves. Still in use as far as I know in Texas by the last buyers.

I have a hammer that is somewhat similar, a Rusty type or more correctly Powel patent and at 70# it is nice to run. Hits perhaps just a nit faster but not much, and in truth I like it that way as I have very nice control. Mine is a tire clutch and I can one hit.

There are pnuematic cylinders and there are pnuematic/hydraulic cylinders. and then there are hydraulic cylinders that can also operate on air. If one looks, the air/hydraulic cylinders are usually 250 psi air/500 psi hydraulic rated. If one looks there are hydraulic cylinders rated at 1000PSI, 2000psi, 3000 psi, and 5000 psi. By "if one looks" I mean looks at the nameplate/catalog etc. Hydraulic fluids DO compress. NEVER EVER make the assumption, often incorrectly taught in classes the fluids do not compress. Water for instance compress about 1/2% per 1000 psi. Takes and stores energy just like air, just stops expanding back quicker. BUT the container is often stretched and when it fails the fluid and the shattered parts can and do fly. As a R&D guy working in the labs of a major hydraulic and pnuematics cylinder maker, and later 21 years experience in the labs of a valve and fittings maker, I have intentionally burst tested more items than most people use in a lifetime. A nice 2.5" steel tube of say 3/8" wall will usually let go at about 19,000 psi, and when that bad boy lets go, it better be in a test cell, since it sounds about like a half stick of dynamite, and often flings a human hand sized piece with force enough to chip a crater in the concrete roof. It would decapitate a human. I have burst tested low rated air cylinders. The industry standard is 6 times rating, so for a 250 psi cylinder you would see at least 1500 psi before failure to pass. Now lets think about failure mode of a tierod cylinder. The rods stretch, the barrel swells like a squid, and when the barrel to head/cap seal fails, you get an explosive spray of fluid at say 2000psi., the seal is extruded and then just pump flow can be made. But that first spray is pump flow + the contracting barrel. Also remember that a pinhole leak at pressure above about 2800 psi will easly cut or inject the fluid if you contact the exit from the pinhole. And you just injected the body with containmanent, ensuring a rip roaring infection. Seen it to many times to count. A nice split or pinhole leak if it contacts an ingition source is a flame thrower, think oil furnace burner gun. The supposed "Less flammable" hydraulic fluids are mostly of the Ethylene glycol variety and are mixed with water. Note that the container for the concentrate will usually be labeled Flammable as pure ethylene glycol is very flammable. I am sure that everyone using these fluids of course floows the makers requirements and checks the concentration of the fluid to water mix using a hand held refractometer or titration right? oh, wait NO ONE DOES. Let the water evaporate from the mix in a nice hot forge shop and sooner or later you have FLAMMABLE hydraulic fluid. Google Ford ambulance fires for a great example. Or perhaps Google RAF use of pure ethylene gylcol cooling in aircraft engines In the very eary days hydraulic fluid was water. Now that is indeed not flammable. But it takes very special seals, EATS pumps even when correctly designed with the tank say 30 feet in the air and the pump on the ground to provide a flooded suction. Oh and the very low viscosity and lack or lubricity pretty much eats everything in the system. You can go to "High Water Content Fluids that are typically 95% water and 5% oils for lubricity and corrosion resistance as well as giveing a vapor off to protect your tank, but these still need that pesky refractometer. The truth is most forge press failure I have seen, and unfortunatly I have seen MANY, are in the fluid conductors. That means those hoses, pipes fittings and valves, not the cylinders. When you build with a hose, you build with a finite life in the system. The hose will fail, not a question of if, but rather when and where. Tubeing is better, but those pesky 37 degree flares most use tend to crack right at the flare and the ferrule type fitting are really only worth using if you buy the very best double ferrule type like Swaglok. Ever spend $50 for a 1" tee? If you are not compentent in the arcane art of high pressure you may or may not get lucky. I am working up a press slowely, using a hydraulic cylinder and a high quality pump. Mine will most likely have the majority of the components on the other side of the shop wall from the forge shop. It will have only rated fluid conductors in the shop. Ptree the guy who built many many low, medium, high and very high as well as one extreme pressure machines. Ptree who also examined, cleaned up and did the first aid on industrial forge shop accidents for many years. Ptree who has not only burst tested thousands and thousands of items, but designed and built and maintained that 33,000 psi machine for 20+ years. Ptree who designed, modified and oversaw the maintenance of an entire high pressure test department, that tested 100,000+ items a month for 20+ years, with some of the test machines routinely operating at 10,5000 psi. Ptree who examined EVERY single returned pressure fitting or valve returned for failure mode for 20+ years. Ptree who saw the effects of many incorrectly installed, modified, or incorrectly chosed and applied items for that same period, returned from all over the world. Ptree who has suffered PTSD from some of the accidents he has worked, so please excuse if this rant seems a little strong.

I believe in German a Fedderhammer. It is a Powell patent style guided helve, leaf spring hammer. Its a factory made RUSTY.

Just outside my shop is a 452# 4140 anvil that is in the as forged condition. We use it as a sledging anvil. Not all day, and not real often, but it has held up well We recently forged a split cross from 2.5" square stock, there are actually 6 segments done on a cell phone, but as you can see the big axle forging does not move much. The end has not mushroomed, and we have used sledges as big as 20# here is a link

I was born left handed and went to Catholic School when the still switched folks, so I write, poorly, right handed. I was pretty much ambi-dextrous until I broke my left wrist, and was then shot in the left hand right after the cast came off. Did some tendon damage and my fine motor control is lessened quite a lot in that hand. But when my right hand was hurt I worked left handed including a day at the anvil. Now my right hand suffers from joint damage in the index and middle fingers and I grip primarily with the ring and little finger. I have noticed some progression of the joint damage from a virus I caught when working in Mexico, and my ring finger on the right is stiffening. May have to return to left handed, which will make my right handed diagonal peens into straight peens and Me have to buy some left handed ones from Nathan Robertson.

What kind of hammer, Power or handled hand hammer? At a industrial forge shop I worked at they made some production runs of hammer heads and used C-1045. Truck axle, if the unforged portion of the axle if 1.373" or less is 1045H a pretty similar alloy. Bigger axles such as found on semis and big dump trucks that have unforged diameter bigger than 1.375" are 1541H also fairly similar. Both of these axle types will be heat treated in the found condition, but once heated to forge that heat treat is moot. You will need to punch the eye and forge paying attention to not hold the steel at forging temp for long without forging as grain growth is an issue in the "H" alloys. Quench in oil, temper at 475F If you water quench thiese alloys will quench crack. If you don't temper within 45 minutes these alloys are very likly to crack. These aloys if well treated make very nice hammers, and when I worked at the axle factory I provided drops of axle stock to many folks for this very purpose.